1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to computing systems. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to a system and process for teaching a user to make a hand-written gesture.
2. Description of Related Art
Computing systems accept a variety of inputs. Some computer applications accept gestures formed by pointing devices to enable easier control and navigation of the applications. A gesture is a pattern of motion input from a pointing device that the system interprets as meaning more than pointing, or meaning something other than pointing. The difficulty, however, with conventional gesture recognizers is that they provide too many false positives and false negatives. When a user is using a pointing device (for instance, (1) stylus with a pen digitizer, (2) finger with a touch digitizer, (3) mouse), a system may interpret normal actions from the pointing device as gestures and implement the functions associated with the gestures to the bewilderment of the user. Likewise, a user may become frustrated when trying to perform a gesture and the computing system does not recognize the user's effort as a gesture.
In computer systems or computer applications that recognize and assign functions to gestures, the pattern of movement from the pointing device alone is generally used to determine whether or not a gesture has occurred. An issue with using shape alone is that slow movement of the stylus or mouse for mouse-wielding users may have a tendency to perform actions that may be recognized as gestures, despite the intentions of the users to the contrary.
Marking menus (also referred to as radial menus) are menus that may be accessed through interaction with a pointing device. Maya and Alias applications of Alias Systems Corp. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada provide examples of marking menus. While similar to gestures in that they include start and stop locations, marking menus are considered menus in that the relevant part of the user input is the location of a button up or stylus up event irrespective of the time to create the gesture. Further, marking menus generally require a specific input to invoke the menu in the first place.
Also, training for performing gestures is sometimes complicated. While adequately training a user how to perform a gesture, conventional training systems that show a single page of gestures without training can be unnecessarily obtrusive or difficult to display when desired.
An improved gesture training system is needed.